English is the study of the English language. The goal is to improve communication skills by practicing listening, speaking, reading, writing, and understanding language rules like pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar.
Professor Ikin emerged from the charm incident a changed man. During the preceding months when his wife had talked persistently about Dr. Okoro and his American friends he had paid little heed to her. He assumed that nagging was her way of life. Dr. Okoro did not constitute a threat to him; they were not in the same department so they could not be competing for the headship of the department. Even if they thought the same subject, Okoro could surely not deem to be a rival to him. He was an Associate Professor while Okoro had only just become a Lecturer Grade II. If he had yielded to his father’s pressure to marry early he might have produced a child as old as Dr. Okoro. Two member of the Provisional Council had had intentionally dropped broad hints that he was lined up to take over from Dr. Wilson as Vice Chancellor. He did not therefore need to any more notice of Dr. Okoro’s attitude towards him than a cow take notice of a fly perching on its back.
It was true Dr. Okoro got on well with the Americans who happened to be at the helm of the affair of Songhai. But what could they do for him? At best, in the teeth of strong opposition from all quarters, they could make him a Senior Lecturer. Even that will require the approval of the Provisional Council, and Okoro should not take for granted that half the members would not accept him as a child born today who would attain full maturity tomorrow. Professor Ikin knew what displeased the Americans about him – it was his lack of a Ph.D., but he hoped that over the years they would learn to judge a man by what he produces rather than by the degrees he has accumulated. If they did not, it was just too bad because only an earthquake could move him away from Songhai at such a crucial stage of its development.
The Americans are displeased with professor Ikin because Options:Millons of people today are in serious ‘debt’. This can be a major factor in wrecking their cars, damaging their careers and even ruining their marriages. It can adversely affect their health and lifespan. It is a deficit that contributes to immune suppression, creating susceptibility to various infections. Conditions as different as diabetes, heart diseases, and extreme obesity, as well as other health problems have been linked to it. Yet, most victims are oblivious of this debt. The debtor is the one who does not have enough sleep needed for well-being. This can be caused by voluntary sleep deprivation resulting from a person’s life-style or by involuntary sleep deprivation because of illness and other causes. Medical researchers estimate that the earth’s population is now getting on the average an hour less sleep per into both the variety of sleep-related illnesses and their impact on the quality of life.
The medical world once viewed the chronic inability to sleep as just one disorder, commonly called insomnia. However, a commission created by the U.S. Congress recognized 17 distinct sleep disorders. At any rate, insomnia has so many causes that it is often considered to be a sympt5om of other problems, much as fever suggests some sort of infection. Even occasional deprivation of sleep can be disastrous. Consider the case of Tom, although an experienced truck driver, he plunged his 18-wheel vehicle over an embankment, spilling 400 litres of sulphuric acid onto a major highway. Tom admits: ‘I fell asleep.’ Students of two U.S. highways estimated that drowsy drivers caused some 50 per cent of the fatal crashes.
With hundreds of thousands of sleep-related auto and other accidents happening annually, the worldwide coast to productivity and family is enormous. What factors may contribute to lack of sleep? ‘One is the social phenomenon often called 24/7- operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The newspaper, USA Today, described this as a cultural earthquake that is changing the way we live, noting that a new wave of round-the-clock retailers and services is profiting by mocking the clock. In many lands, people watch all-night television programmes and access the internet when they should be sleeping. Then there is the toll taken by emotional disorders, often involving anxieties heightened by stress occasioned by the pace of life. Also, there are a variety of physical diseases that can contribute to lack of sleep.
Many doctors note how difficult it is to get their patients to take sleep seriously. One doctor complained that chronic fatigue is even considered ‘a status symbol’ by some. And because their condition often worsens very gradually, victims of sleep deprivation may not recognize that they suffer from a serious sleep disorder. Many of them reason, ‘I’m just getting old’ or I’ can’t cope with life, so I tend to shut down’ or ‘I’m tired all the time because I can never get the long rest I need.’ Reversing this sleep debt is a complex challenge. But understanding how a healthful sleep cycle works and learning to identify the signs of sleep debt can provide the motivation to change. Recognizing the symptoms of a serious sleep disorder can save lives and this should be a warning to many Nigerians, particularly those who engage in long night journeys.
The -passage suggests that Options:In order to approach the problem of anxiety in play, let us consider the problem of anxiety in play, let us consider the activity of building and destroying a tower. Many a mother thinks that her little son is in a 'destructive stage' or even has a 'destructive personality' because after building a big, big tower, the boy cannot follow her advice to leave the tower for Daddy to see, but instead must kick it and make it collapse. The almost manic pleasure with which children watch the collapse in a second of the product of long play-labour has puzzled many, especially since the child does not appreciate it at all if his tower falls by accident or by a helpful uncle’s hand. He, the builder, must destroy it himself. This game, I should think, arises from the not so distant experience of sudden falls at the very time when standing upright on wobbly legs afforded a new and fascinating perspective on existence. The child who consequently learns to make a tower 'stand up' enjoys causing the same tower to waver and collapse; in addition to the active mastery over a previously passive event, it makes one feel stronger to know that there is somebody weaker ----and towers, unlike little sister, can't cry and call, 'Mummy!'
In the passage 'manic pleasure' means
Options:Choose the option nearest in meaning to the italicized words or expressions.
The rapist claimed that the woman’s voluptuous hips attracted him.
Options:Select the option that best explains the information conveyed in the sentence.
In those days in this school, everyone who spoke in a language other than English paid a fine of ten naira?
Options:From the alternatives provided in the question below select the one which most appropriately completes the sentence:
The hotel _____ is at Wurno Road.
Options:In the question below choose the word(s) or phrase(s) which best fill(s) the gap(s):
The traveller had to run _____ in order to _____ the train.
Options:The endeavor to maintain proper standard of fairness in journalism must be pursued. It is fatally easy for the journalist to deviate from the straight path. There is his natural desire to ‘make a story’ and insidious temptation to twist facts to square with his paper’s policy. Both are as indefensible as the framing of misleading headlines for the sake of effect. The conscientious journalist must check any tendency to bias, and guard against the dangers inherent in personal antipathies or friendships, and in traditional oppositions between rival schools of thought. When a political opponent, whose stupidity habitually provokes attack, makes an effective speech, honesty requires that he be given credit for it. Where personal relationships might make it easier and more congenial to keep silent than to criticize, the journalist must never forget his duty to the public and the supreme importance of recording the truth
When may a journalist have to act against his own inclination? Options: